Notes from BrightonSEO, October 2020
Having recently graduated in Business and Marketing, I’ve recently joined the One Further team on a graduate internship as a Digital Marketing Assistant. I was excited to develop my knowledge of digital marketing, learn the ropes of SEO, and understand how marketing tools and platforms can be utilised effectively.
Earlier on this month, BrightonSEO held two days of online talks, covering everything SEO and digital marketing-related. The platform enabled people within all areas of marketing and communications to listen to new ideas, share their knowledge and experiences within their roles and overall, to become better search marketers.
The following are a few of my key takeaways from just a fraction of the talks that were available.
Time Saving Tips for Google Data Studio
Greg Gifford (Vice President of Search at SearchLab)
As a beginner who’s new to SEO tools, it’s always nice to know from the start of your learning journey that there are tips and tricks to navigate around a site better, time efficient ways of inputting data, and to make effective progress overall.
When it comes to Google Data Studio, here are some of the top tips shared by Greg:
Use the right browser - Google Chrome!
Use the free templates available online
Be consistent with how you name data sources
Customise your theme from the start (a custom colour theme can be extracted i.e. from company logo)
Create custom filters and understand how they work
Be wary of how many data sources are included on a single page as it can cause DS to run slowly
Customise your reports for different clients
Overlap filtered and unfiltered charts to show total and organic traffic
Add video explainer links to charts to identify and explain what is relevant
Introduction to Google Analytics
Charlotte Upfold (analytics manager, Polka Dot Data)
Once again, being new to Google Analytics, Charlotte’s talk was great at giving advice to people who were just starting out. A few of the great tips she gave, which I will be able to apply when analysing reports, are:
Use Advanced Search as it allows you to search more in depth within a report
‘Plotting rows’ is a valuable debugging and investigative tool
Build custom reports
Add annotations to the peaks and troughs of a chart as it helps explain why there may have been a peak or decline
Use data comparisons to review performance
Why Google Reviews are so important & how to get TONNES of them
(Daisy Foster, Founder of Digitool)
Before attending this talk, I knew the importance of word of mouth marketing and the effect of having authentic reviews from real customers, as it naturally provides greater credibility for a company.
However, a point which most definitely stood out for me was Daisy’s advice to “figure out the ‘moment of delight'”. This is essentially the moment a customer feels delighted to be served by you, making it easier and effective to ask for a review, and helping you to achieve your goals of collating lots of Google Reviews and building a positive reputation.
Daisy used the example of Amazon, when a customer’s order arrives at the door and they see the product they’ve ordered. This would be the moment of delight.
Interesting fact: Only 13% of small businesses ask for reviews, but 75% customers are willing to do so as long as it’s an easy process.
SEO From Zero to Hero
Rene Harris, Global SEO Lead for Avon Cosmetics
Rene spoke about her experience when joining Avon and her plan for utilising SEO tools to improve their website. Her to-do list consisted of aspects such as improvements to keywords on the site, blogs, and product names.
When discovering the basics of SEO, she recommended the following resources:
Search Engine Land newsletters and insights
SEO 2020: Learn search engine optimization with smart internet marketing strategies by Adam Clarke
I’ll be sure to check these out to build on my SEO knowledge further!
Finally, a little non-SEO related talk which was also available over the two-day online conference, was the ‘Guided Meditation Session’ held by Briony Gunson. It was most definitely relaxing and a time to just focus on the present moment with Briony guiding the deep breathing techniques.